Friday, August 24, 2012

Food & Beer Friday :: Your organic beer option!

One of our favorite watering holes is Tasty Beverage, and they celebrated their one year anniversary on Wednesday.  While I was there, I picked up some new bottles for tasting!  Let's talk organic this week!


Bison Brewing is a brewery out of Berkeley, California.  I'm a big fan of their support of sustainable & organic agriculture.  While I do think California allows more accessibility to organic ingredients, lots of breweries are trying to make steps in the right direction.  According to Bison,
"A household purchasing just one 6-pack of organic beer (4.5 pints x 16 oz. pints) every week for an entire year causes a farmer to convert 1,700 sq. feet of conventional farmland into organic agriculture. Drinking more organic beer a week only increases that impact!
A bar or restaurant purchasing just one 15.5 gallon keg of organic beer per week causes a farmer to convert ONE FOOTBALL FIELD of farmland from conventional to organic! Ask your favorite bars and restaurants to to commit to at least one tap handle to organic beer! The more tap handles, the more football fields worth of land we can covert!"
Just some food for thought!  But let's get to the beer!


This sums it up!  The ingredients are all organic & it blends together for a nice ale.


I couldn't recall having this beer prior to now.  It didn't have much of a description on the bottle as to the style of beer.  Bison Brewing calls this their Honey Basil Ale.  It was a bit darker than I was anticipating; it lends an amber color with very little head.



I didn't taste much sweetness and was more influenced by the basil notes.  The beer definitely is not hoppy.  The Honey Basil is more malty than hoppy.  The hops and malt offset the sweetness, so don't imagine a sweet wheat-like beer.  This is not that at all.  It is really a sessionable, easy to drink ale.

The great thing about this beer is the opportunity for pairing with food!  The herbal notes lend to lots of unique flavors in a beer.  I would love to experiment with the pairings, but my mind immediately goes to a green curry or Thai dish for pairing!


This little lady paired a summer tomato soup.  Or this grilled honey-basil chicken.  Seriously, the options are endless!

Overall, I'm happy I discovered another easy-to-drink beer that's not overly hoppy or super sweet beer.

Have you tried any other Bison Brewing beers?

CHEERS!

8 comments:

Terri said...

Tasty Beverage is DEFINITELY on the list of things to do -one last time- before we leave Raleigh. Luckily, Berkeley is right across the bridge so we'll have to check out more of the Bison line. I havent tried this one, but I shall now. Especially with the FOOTBALL FIELD size conversion.

Unknown said...

Not hoppy? Sweet Ale? Sounds perfect! I must try it! Now my only question is where can I find it on the East Coast... hmmm.
xx
justyn

Unknown said...

that beer looks amazing!! I need to try it asap

Leesh said...

Honey Basil sounds really interesting.

kayla said...

that beer looks mighty good, its so hard to find a good organic beer!

Niki {Glossy Blonde} said...

I haven't tried any Bison Brewing beers but they sound so good! Honey and Basil definitely sounds like one I would LOVE! I need to get my hands on these!

Unknown said...

Very cool! I have had the chocolate bison stout but never tried this one. I must now!

Clare said...

I would kill for a good beer right now! Our choices here in Dominica are pretty limited... I can't wait for a good microbrew! How fun that you have Food & Beer Fridays! I will have to look back and get some good recs, and I'll have to join in sometime!

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